Iraq to US, as a Refugee!

Wal-Mart is not my usual shopping destination. But today I hopped into the bus that was heading to the Walmart. My idea was to grab some stuff from Walmart and catch the next bus home. Don’t know why I did that, maybe just for the change of the regular scene that Kroger gave me. I don’t know! I picked up few cookies and chocolate ice-cream, as usual, to relax from the stressful environment. Walking towards the bus station itself was unimaginable, due to the chilling cold and on top of that, I forgot my windbreaker. Reaching the bus terminal was a big relief from the chilling cold wind hitting directly on my face.

WE ALL DESERVE TO BE HAPPY!

OH! DAMN I just missed the bus and the next bus will take an hour to come. Weekend special! Hmm! I became disappointed. How can I miss that bus? What did I do? I wish I had a car now. Thoughts and emotions started running down my mind. I looked around to see my fellow riders. Everyone was tired and irritated due to the cold weather.

In the midst of everything, I saw a 5-year-old girl with such a beautiful and peaceful face. I was surprised. She smiled at me, without any resistance I smiled back at her and suddenly she handed over her toy to me. An invitation to play with her. While I was playing with that little girl, I suddenly noticed that she doesn’t even have proper clothes to protect herself from the cold, neither do her mother nor her brother, who was sitting quietly on the bench. I noticed that the boy had a pleasant face with complete silence in his eyes. It bothered me and I looked at their mother, a woman who was enjoying that moment, with an infinite peace in her mind. Seeing me playing with her daughter, the mother started talking to me, she looked happy with her life. I don’t think the bad weather bothered her.

She said, ” we came here 6 months ago from Iraq, as refugees and everything is so peaceful here, I have a life. Back in Iraq, everything was chaos”. She explained it using the little English she knew. I was able to see the happiness in her words and eyes. Such a pleasant experience for me. I listened to her for an hour, the cold nor the wind was able to bother me anymore. She pulled me into her happiness of the present and helped me realize that hard times won’t stay.

Look at her, she doesn’t have a car or a house of her own still, she was happy with the small rented apartment and a minimum wage job. I am sure most of us are never satisfied with what we have or had but for her the fresh air to breath and the peaceful atmosphere that this country was able to offer her was everything.

“The happy faces of my children make my day, that’s what I care about”, she said. I boarded the bus and there she is, with that smiling face, in that cold, waiting for her bus to come. I was able to find a sense of peacefulness in me and everything around me. What a day it was, I said to myself while I was writing this.

We all are lucky to be born in this world and what matters is that, are we able to enjoy this moment. Let it be hard or soft on you. Let it knock you down. Did we learn something from it? That all what is going to matter. Like that mother of the little girl, we all should learn to enjoy being in this moment and that will teach us everything we want to learn.